Dive Brief:
- BVNK, the London-based international stablecoin payments company, has raised $50 million in a funding round led by Menlo Park, California-based Haun Ventures, according to a Tuesday press release.
- Other U.S. investors that participated include Coinbase Ventures, Scribble Ventures, DRW VC, along with previous investors Avenir and Tiger Global, according to the Dec. 17 release. To date, BVNK has raised $90 million in total, a spokesperson for the firm said.
- With the capital infusion, the company plans to expand its U.S. operations, with plans to open a new San Francisco office and stake out a presence in New York City, the release said.
Dive Insight:
The key new investor in BVNK — Haun Ventures — is led by CEO and founder Katie Haun. She was formerly a partner at the well-known California venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as a16z, and co-led three crypto funds at that firm, according to the firm’s site.
One of Haun’s colleagues, Diogo Mónica, noted in a post on that firm’s site that existing cross-border payments offerings don’t meet the needs of today’s global economy. “The promise of crypto has long been to build faster, fairer, and more inclusive financial systems,” Haun Ventures General Partner Diogo Mónica said in a post on his firm’s site, noting that the stablecoin market is now processing $25 trillion. “BVNK is creating infrastructure that bridges the gap between fiat and stablecoin ecosystems.”
BVNK’s latest funding round comes as investments in payments companies begin to recover from a previous slump. Globally, payments companies garnered $14.1 billion in 537 funding rounds last year, a downturn from 2021 and 2022, according to research from CB Insights. In the U.S., payments companies raised $10.4 billion across 196 funding rounds last year, with Stripe’s $6.5 billion round in March of last year heavily influencing the funding total.
Earlier this year, worldwide investments in payment companies remained flat in Q1 at about $1.2 billion, CB Insights said. Showing signs of a turnaround, investors poured $1.4 billion into payments companies around the world, slightly up from the $1.2 billion a year prior, per CB Insights.
In its funding round announcement, BVNK touted its partnerships with other companies providing stablecoin access such as PayPal, Circle and First Digital. Prior to its recent expansion plans, the company has spent the past year hiring U.S. employees, building its local banking infrastructure and obtaining operational licenses to partner with American businesses, the release said.
“Stablecoins are redefining how money moves across the world—faster, more cost-efficient, and with fewer barriers,” BVNK CEO Jesse Hemson-Struthers said in the release. “At BVNK, we’re building the infrastructure to make these new rails accessible to businesses everywhere, empowering them to operate at the speed of today’s economy. This funding marks the next step in our mission to transform payments for the modern world.”
BVNK is plotting its U.S. expansion as President-elect Donald Trump takes office for his second term, which industry insiders expect will benefit the crypto industry. Stablecoins, which were introduced as a less volatile alternative to cryptocurrencies, have yet to catch on with most merchants, but the incoming Trump administration may pave the way for cryptocurrencies, including stablecoins, to grow.
Last month, SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who has been skeptical of crypto, announced that he will step down from the agency on Jan. 20, 2025. Meanwhile, executives at Coinbase and Ripple have said they would turn away lawyers who were involved in lawsuits against cryptocurrency companies during President Biden’s administration.
